RECORDS OF THE BICESTER CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

Bicester Congregational Church traditionally traced its foundation to the year when the Act of Uniformity came into force in 1662. A secret conventicle was established and John Troughton, a fellow ejected from St John's College, Oxford, was licensed as a Presbyterian preacher and his house as a meeting place in 1672, following the Declaration of Indulgence. He died in 1681 and one of his associates, Henry Cornish, became the first pastor of the congregation in 1690. His successor, John Troughton the younger, was responsible for building the chapel in Water Lane, later known as Chapel Street. It was licensed in 1728 and was in the hands of trustees. The congregation described itself as 'the Congregation or Society of Protestant Dissenters from the Church of England commonly called Presbyterians'. It benefited from a standing working union between Presbyterians and Independents and became a centre of importance for Nonconformists in a wide surrounding area. A Sunday school was established and held in the vestry of the church in 1794. The chapel was enlarged and licensed for the solemnisation of marriages in 1839. It was restored again and a schoolroom built in 1873. In 1940, the church joined the Congregational Union of England and Wales, while in 1972 the Congregationalists and English Presbyterians joined together and formed the United Reform Church. The congregation was then known as the Bicester United Reform Church; it closed in June 1978.

The records were given as gift in August 2005 (accession 5426), except one item (NC3/R1/2) which was deposited in February 2006 (accession 5504). They were received in a disorganised order; loose papers and correspondence were scattered among volumes or in envelopes with no given relation between each other. Appropriate series were recreated and loose papers were arranged in these series in thematic and chronological order.

References

Hollis, A H, 'Some aspects of the history of nonconformity in Bicester, Oxon' (facsimile, 1956).

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting-Houses (London, 1986), p. 171.

Mary D. Lobel (ed.), The Victoria History of the Counties of England: a history of Oxfordshire vol. 6 (London, 1959), pp. 48-51.

Catalogued by Charline Dekens, May 2007.

Open

The records were kept in the chest of the church under the responsibility of the successive ministers and/or secretaries. The fonds bears in particular the mark of Walter Joseph French who was secretary of the church for fifty-four years (1873-1927). Its includes a list of the records made by G. H. Dannatt for the depositor in November 1978. Dannatt wrote a 'History of dissident in Bicester' in 1953, and encouraged A. H. Hollis in writing on 'Some aspects of the history of nonconformity in Bicester, Oxon' in 1956. Both were given access to the registers and minute books by Stanley George Burden who was minister of the church from 1952 till 1972. The records had already generated interest from some descendants of Bicester Congregationalists. Thomas Blyford Jenkins transcribed the 1827 manuscript of John Rolls entitled 'Some Account of the Bicester Dissenters' and continued by his nephew Samuel Rolls over 1831-1833 (NC3/MS3/1). Blyford gave a copy of his transcript to the church secretary in 1942. He completed the transcription of the first church register as well as of abstracts of the earliest surviving minute book in 1948. In 1965, Frank Gibbs transcribed and indexed the church register of births, baptisms and burials for 1786-1837 (NC3/R4/1). The original must have been deposited with the Register General since Gibbs consulted it at the Public Records Office (now The National Archives). He sent his transcript to Burden who he met in 1967 and then transcribed the first church register. In 1982-1983, Mary Brydon of the Launton Historical Society transcribed the register of baptisms, marriages and burials for 1930-1977. She also compared the work of Jenkins and Gibbs and produced a new transcript of the first register in 1986. There was evidence that some of the volumes had been in the custody of the Launton Historical Society in 1980s and 1990s. References are also made to a register held by the Bodleian Library for marriages and burials over years not covered by the registers of this fonds.